On the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, Let’s ... Go Shopping!
Buying green and changing personal behavior won't save the planet.
With apologies to a cliché that predates the advent of Earth Day by a year, it is easy being green. Too easy. From adorable reusable shopping bags and organic clothing to hemp shower curtains (no nasty petroleum-based vinyl liner!) and "natural is now fun!" beauty products for girls, the proliferation of green products makes doing our bit for the planet a blast, since Americans can combine environmentalism with their favorite sport, shopping. Indeed, a Gallup poll released this month finds that large majorities of Americans are shopping for the good of the planet: 76 percent said they'd bought a product specifically because they thought it was better for the environment.
Shopping for the planet is just one manifestation of how green activism has gone seriously off course as it has spread a gospel of personal change rather than collective action. Of the Nature Conservancy's five recommendations for Earth Day, four—figure out your carbon footprint here, time your shower, go for a walk (!), and find a farmers’ market—involve individual behavior. Only a single suggestion, "speak up on climate change" by letting lawmakers know you support the energy and climate bill that Sens. Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham plan to introduce this week, gets at the only kind of change that has been shown in the 40 years since the first Earth Day to make a difference.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
10 comments:
Being green has simply become one huge marketing ploy. It is not at all green to "consume" more. To build a "green" house means using more land that could be used for forest, using more materials for building, etc. If someone truly wants to be green- buy less, use less, live without as much. Just because you put all your plastic packaged products in a reusable shopping bag doesn't mean you are saving anything. You are just buying into the mass marketing campaign. How about "on Earth Day, wake up and realize you are still being controlled by a marketing machine. The "green" machine."
Do not fear, you will be dead approx 100 million years before the earth is destroyed by us filthy humans.
Being "green" is a whole lifestyle change. It's controlling the electricity you use,(although you now get a higher per Kilowat rate for being conservative)It's planning all of your errands so you don't drive unnecessarily,(or even riding your bike for errands when you can), it's growing your own vegetables or supporting the local farmers, it's the banning of throw away products in your household such as paper towels, plastic utensils, paper plates, etc. It's planning and making home cooked meals instead of prepackaged products. I run a "green" household and I only have to visit the dump every three months with between 7-10 bags of trash.
The only green machine im getting on is my john deer riding mower, it has a cup holder on the fender with a budweiser in it. It takes approx a six pack to do my lawn, no my yard is not that big.
So yes get on the green machine.
Warning the other green machine is a group that rides around and throws there beer cans out on the side of the road while taking there plastic bags back to the grocery store to recycle .
I hate to tell you but paper/trees are a renewable resource. I lived near a paper mill in Georgia, yes it stunk, and they have a 20 year tree farm rotation that keeps them in trees 365 days a year with a truck coming in every 2 minutes. This is not old growth forest that they get the trees from.
1:10 There is nothing like hitting a yield sign dead on going 50.
Off the subject, but I sure wish people would learn the use of "their" and "there"! Doesn't anyone pay attention to the basic English language any more?? I must see this at least 20 times a day on blogs and Facebook, it's a shame.
3:40 You truly are off the topic. I do not see "their" or "there" used wrong anywhere in this article or the posts.
5:52pm, I hate to correct you because you probably don't know the difference but 1:10pm says "throw there beer cans" is the wrong use of "there." 3:40pm anon for county executive!!
5:52
Who cares where they throw their beer cans or where they use there their.
Get a life.
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